Despite Trump's scaremongering, socialism is gaining a foothold in America
Caitlin Brady speaks of socialism as though it's the only rational response to 21st-century America.
"I work full time, I work 40 hours a week, and I qualify for food stamps," the 31-year-old said, explaining why she volunteered for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) campaign in Chicago's municipal elections last month.
To get food stamps in Illinois means Brady makes no more than $1,670 US a month. She pays no income tax on that — but neither did tech behemoth Amazon pay tax on the reported $10.8 billion it made last year.
"The richest country in the history of the world," Brady said, "and I'm not able to put a roof over my head and eat."
Like many toiling in the trenches of the DSA campaign, Brady is a millennial. Born between the early 1980s and 2000, theirs is the biggest generation since the baby boom and the most likely to think the American Dream — success equals prosperity — is dead.
Chicago is a historically big "D" Democratic city, and for years it has operated a bit like a one-party state. Republicans don't figure much in its politics. Political offices are sometimes passed between generations of the same Democratic families.
But in recent years, the socialists have spotted weaknesses on the Democrats' left flank: unaffordable urban housing and unkept promises of rent control. They struck, painting the Democrats as sellouts to big real estate developers.
On election night, the media clucked and fussed over Democrat Lori Lightfoot, the openly gay black woman chosen to replace Chicago's unbeloved Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
But underneath that headline was the news that the socialists running for a handful of city council seats had won them all. Granted, that's only four. But it means they now have six spots out of 50 in the government of the third-largest metropolis in the country — socialism's biggest victory in modern American history.
There are varieties of socialism around the world, but in the American context, it is fundamentally about ensuring that the health and welfare of the people does not depend on the incentives of capitalism.
"People over profits" was a popular rallying cry among Chicago's DSA. But the DSA did not insist that workers should control the means of production and promise to take over Amazon. They ran on affordable housing, universal health care and returning government to the people.
'It's back'
The results in Chicago were preceded by a tsunami of speculation about the resurrection of the American left— why and where in the land it might or might not pop up.
In March, New York magazine churned out several thousand words trying to answer its own question: When did everyone become a socialist? On the right, The Weekly Standard (just before it folded in December) took aim at what it called "the illusory dream of democratic socialism" in a piece called "Up from the Grave," which began: "It's back."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/despi...sm-is-gaining-a-foothold-in-america-1.5118810
Wonderful, a country of lazy welfare grabbing basement dwellers wanting free handouts.
Maybe they need to get off the couch, loose some weight and get a real job.
Caitlin Brady speaks of socialism as though it's the only rational response to 21st-century America.
"I work full time, I work 40 hours a week, and I qualify for food stamps," the 31-year-old said, explaining why she volunteered for the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) campaign in Chicago's municipal elections last month.
To get food stamps in Illinois means Brady makes no more than $1,670 US a month. She pays no income tax on that — but neither did tech behemoth Amazon pay tax on the reported $10.8 billion it made last year.
"The richest country in the history of the world," Brady said, "and I'm not able to put a roof over my head and eat."
Like many toiling in the trenches of the DSA campaign, Brady is a millennial. Born between the early 1980s and 2000, theirs is the biggest generation since the baby boom and the most likely to think the American Dream — success equals prosperity — is dead.
Chicago is a historically big "D" Democratic city, and for years it has operated a bit like a one-party state. Republicans don't figure much in its politics. Political offices are sometimes passed between generations of the same Democratic families.
But in recent years, the socialists have spotted weaknesses on the Democrats' left flank: unaffordable urban housing and unkept promises of rent control. They struck, painting the Democrats as sellouts to big real estate developers.
On election night, the media clucked and fussed over Democrat Lori Lightfoot, the openly gay black woman chosen to replace Chicago's unbeloved Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
But underneath that headline was the news that the socialists running for a handful of city council seats had won them all. Granted, that's only four. But it means they now have six spots out of 50 in the government of the third-largest metropolis in the country — socialism's biggest victory in modern American history.
There are varieties of socialism around the world, but in the American context, it is fundamentally about ensuring that the health and welfare of the people does not depend on the incentives of capitalism.
"People over profits" was a popular rallying cry among Chicago's DSA. But the DSA did not insist that workers should control the means of production and promise to take over Amazon. They ran on affordable housing, universal health care and returning government to the people.
'It's back'
The results in Chicago were preceded by a tsunami of speculation about the resurrection of the American left— why and where in the land it might or might not pop up.
In March, New York magazine churned out several thousand words trying to answer its own question: When did everyone become a socialist? On the right, The Weekly Standard (just before it folded in December) took aim at what it called "the illusory dream of democratic socialism" in a piece called "Up from the Grave," which began: "It's back."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/despi...sm-is-gaining-a-foothold-in-america-1.5118810
Wonderful, a country of lazy welfare grabbing basement dwellers wanting free handouts.
Maybe they need to get off the couch, loose some weight and get a real job.
